Desert of Despair

Political intrigue and rebellion

After returning to the column of soldiers, and giving the staff to Aziz, they journey back to Abu Bakir. Heading to the Abreel Taproom, they are confronted by an old, wizened man claiming to know information about their homeland. They follow him home, where he takes them to his library below the main living quarters. There, they are ambushed by Captain Aziz and his new Goblin cohorts. The party are knocked unconscious, and are dragged away to the dungeons. They overhear Aziz speaking to the governor of Abu Bakir, Caliph Abban Abbas, about rebelling against the leader of the empire, Emrikir Haaris Zafar. He is planning to unite the rulers of the southern cities and the monsters of the wastes against the Emrikir’s stronghold in the north.

As the party reaches the tower, multiple goblins ambush the column. After fighting off several raiders, Gwenn and Adrik push through to the gates of the tower itself. Pushing through ambushes by Goblin Blackblades and dodging traps and hazards throughout the floors of the tower, they encounter a battle between angels and a pit fiend. One angel saves them from the pit fiend’s fire, and tells them that he will expect a favor at a later date. They finally push through to the top of the tower. A Demonic Acolyte Underboss, surrounded by his minions, conjures ancient magyiks to stop them, but they slay him and take his staff as a gift for Captain Aziz. When they attempt to descend from the tower, the angel reappears and drops two more strangers off for them to take care of, Tridor the wizard, and Saphira the ranger. Both of them also don’t remember where they came from.

Gwenn the human fighter and Adrik the fat dwarf cleric, drop out of the sky in the small desert village of Abu Bakir, on the border of the Southern Wastes. They don’t know each other, and suddenly can’t remember where they came from. They are approached by Captain Aziz, who offers them a place to stay in the town if they help the town’s guards in clearing a goblin- and kobold-infested tower. As they make their way on horse-back to the tower, a strange sense of unease comes over their purpose so deep in the desert.